During encoding of a video signal, one or more encoding techniques, such as H.261, H.263, H.263+ (Annex J), H.264, SMPTE VC-1, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and/or MPEG-4, may be utilized to encode the video signal on a macroblock-by-macroblock basis. During encoding of video information, for example, prediction error information may be encoded together with prediction mode information, as well as with other side information necessary for the decoding process. In order to encode the prediction error information, a discrete cosine transformation may be applied to transform the prediction error information into frequency domain coefficients prior to quantization and entropy encoding. During this process, certain information relating to the prediction error, for example, may be lost. As a result of the missing information, the quality of the decoded video signal may be decreased. More specifically, transform blockiness may appear in the decoded video in the form of square grid artifacts, for example. Other artifacts may also appear in the decoded video due to missing video information.
Conventional video decoders are adapted to decode elementary video stream encoded according to a single encoding standard, such as H.264, VC-1, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and/or MPEG-4 encoding standards. An elementary video stream may be encoded utilizing a single encoding technique. However, an application space may support a stream being encoded using any one of many standards. For example, the Blu-Ray ROM specification for high definition DVD playback allows a video stream to be encoded using MPEG-2, H.264, or VC-1.
However, decoding efficiency in conventional video processing systems is substantially decreased since two or more decoders may need to be utilized for processing/decoding of elementary video streams that may have been encoded according to different encoding standards.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.